Document capture: Key trends for 2024
February 17, 2024
Article, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Managed Print Services, Trends
Quocirca’s Document Capture Trends 2024 study, conducted across organisations in the UK, France, Germany and the US, reveals that just 11% of organisations are fully paperless, with 52% saying they have digitised most of their business processes to be less reliant on paper. Overall 75% indicated that they are accelerating their plans to digitise paper-based processes, with the primary motivators being to improve sustainability, increase business efficiency and improve security and regulatory compliance.
Paper reliance and roadblocks to digitisation
A mix of inertia and caution characterise the top reasons organisations say they are still reliant on paper. Overall, 36% indicated that the top reason was due to customers sending paper documents, followed my legal requirements (30%) and physical signatures (29%). Cultural resistance was cited by 26% overall, dropping to 15% among SMBs and rising to 31% in organisations with over 1,000 employees.
While this ongoing reliance on paper is costly and efficient, cost is cited as the top barrier to digitisation (35%), rising to 44% among SMB organisations and 50% among UK organisations. This is followed by challenges around the right equipment and software (29%) and systems integration (29%).
For those organisations that have made progress with their digitisation efforts, the top benefits are seen as improved sustainability (34% cite digitisation as very effective), increased business efficiency (30%), and improved availability of business critical documents (31%).
Scanning volumes increasing
Growing digitisation will prompt a rise in the amount of scanning undertaken by businesses. Compared to an average decrease in print volumes of 3%, scan volumes are expected to increase by an average of 6% in the coming year, rising to 8% in large organisations.
Overall 59% expect to increase investment in scanner equipment in 2024, with 58% planning to increase investment in MFPs with scan and workflow functionality. 65% report that they regularly use the scan features on MFPs, rising to 72% in the industrial sector.
Overall 64% report that they use a print management tool to monitor scan usage. While the majority of organisations (54%) report that they use a managed print service (MPS), only 12% report that they have a cost-per-scan contract. However, 49% indicate they are very interested in this approach, with very few showing no interest. As scan volumes continue to increase, this presents an opportunity for MPS providers to extend existing contracts to encompass scanning more broadly. This includes document capture and workflow solutions, particularly with many organisations indicating they are prioritising mobile and cloud capture over the coming year.
AI powered document capture
To overcome the inherent inefficiencies with traditional document scanning, artificial intelligence (AI) promises to advance and automate document capture. 78% of organisations indicated that AI is a top technology investment priority for 2024, with 64% planning to increase investment in robotic process automation (RPA) and intelligent document processing (IDP).
AI-powered document capture offers a powerful solution for organisations of all sizes, streamlining document handling and maximising efficiency. IDP technology is one area that can help ensure documents are processed accurately, minimise manual intervention, and support regulatory compliance.
IDP is considered the most useful application of AI in document capture (31%, rising to 36% within larger organisations). This is followed by form recognition and improvements to the way data can be extracted (27%), as well as dealing with image data (26%, rising to 39% among retail organisations). Better straight-through handling of data is seen as a top benefit for one-quarter (25%) of respondents, rising to 33% in larger organisations.
A less-paper future
The integration of AI-enabled document capture and digital workflow solutions is accelerating the convergence between paper and digital, paving the way for a less-paper future. This will help organisations unlock new levels of efficiency through streamlined processes, improve compliance and enhance sustainability.
Read more about the Future of Document Capture in Quocirca’s report.
